Stocks rallied to highs of the year today. But it wasn’t easy.
After kicking off the week with small gains, stocks rallied in the morning. But stocks dropped late morning, erasing the day’s early gains.
Trading was choppy and slow mid-day. Then a late session rally helped lift the major indices to session highs heading into the close.
The NASDAQ and the S&P finished at the best levels in 5 months. The DOW was also higher but is still below the 2019 high set 3 weeks ago.
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Here’s where the major indices ended the day:
- The S&P finished with a 0.4% gain. Up 10 points, the S&P ended at 2,833.
- The DOW ended higher by 0.3%. Adding 65 points, the DOW closed at 25,914.
- The NASDAQ was up 0.3%. With a 26 point gain, the NASDAQ finished at 7,714.
Crude Oil (CL) finished at highs of the year. Up 1.0%, CL ended at $59.05 a barrel. Crude Oil has finished higher 5 out of the last 6 trading days.
The U.S.-China “trade saga” had some deflating news today. According to the South China Morning Post, a trade deal summit might be pushed back to June. Traders were initially hoping that the presidents of both countries would meet in March. But the meeting and a deal continues to get pushed back.
Boeing (BA) and Facebook (FB) were two big names that lagged behind the market (again) today.
Boeing was down 1.8% after news that the Department of Transportation is investigating the FAA’s approval of the 737 Max. And a French investigator said that based on a flight data recovered in Ethiopia, there “clear similarities” between the recent crash and a 737 Max crash 6 months ago.
Facebook lost 3.3% after an analyst downgrade. It was the biggest daily loss of the year for Facebook.
Looking at the economic calendar, we have a pretty quiet week. But all eyes will be on the Fed on Wednesday, with the FOMC Statement and Press Conference scheduled for the afternoon. The CME’s FedWatch tool shows that traders believe there is a 98.7% probability that the Fed will leave rates unchanged.
Here is the economic calendar for the week:
Real Time Economic Calendar provided by Investing.com.
Source: RockwellTrading by Markus Heitkoetter | Original Link